Compactifications of discrete quantum groups

Given a discrete quantum group A we construct a certain Hopf *-algebra AP which is a unital *-subalgebra of the multiplier algebra of A. The structure maps for AP are inherited from M(A) and thus the construction yields a compactification of A which is analogous to the Bohr compactification of a locally compact group. This algebra has the expected universal property with respect to homomorphisms from multiplier Hopf algebras of compact type (and is therefore unique). This provides an easy proof of the fact that for a discrete quantum group with an infinite dimensional algebra the multiplier algebra is never a Hopf algebra

Groups with compact open subgroups and multiplier Hopf ∗^*-algebras

For a locally compact group $G$ we look at the group algebras $C_0(G)$ and $C_r^*(G)$, and we let $f\in C_0(G)$ act on $L^2(G)$ by the multiplication operator $M(f)$. We show among other things that the following properties are equivalent: 1. $G$ has a compact open subgroup. 2. One of the $C^*$-algebras has a dense multiplier Hopf $^*$-subalgebra (which turns out to be unique). 3. There are non-zero elements $a\in C_r^*(G)$ and $f\in C_0(G)$ such that $aM(f)$ has finite rank. 4. There are non-zero elements $a\in C_r^*(G)$ and $f\in C_0(G)$ such that $aM(f)=M(f)a$. If $G$ is abelian, these properties are equivalent to: 5. There is a non-zero continuous function with the property that both $f$ and $\hat f$ have compact support.Comment: 23 pages. Section 1 has been shortened and improved. To appear in Expositiones Mathematica